


Smosh: Outbreak Undead

by MaddieBoBaddie



Category: Smosh
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Anything you'd expect of a apocalypse AU, Blood and Violence, Comfort/Angst, Explicit Language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2020-04-05 22:42:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19049932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieBoBaddie/pseuds/MaddieBoBaddie
Summary: One small accident sent the world into ruin. One infected human to bring upon an apocalypse. One night for the lives of every person to change forever.The Smosh family arrived in Bigbear with high spirits and a plan of winter fun ahead of them. If they'd only known they were arriving at ground zero of the outbreak, maybe they would have cherished the last few hours of the life they knew.*This story is based off of the Smosh Games: Outbreak Undead series*





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Outbreak Undead](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/487027) by Smosh Games. 



> The first chapter of this story is a written version of the events that occurred in the Smosh Games “Outbreak: Undead” playthrough (Also where I got the name for the fic). I transcribed the dialogue and actions from the series and put it together into a coherent story. The majority of it is accurate to their game, but I’ve changed a few things for clarity. I also took out some character deaths since I had plans for them in the future of the story. If you haven’t watched the series already I would highly recommend it. The run time for the whole thing is about 2 and ½ hours, but it’s definitely worth it. You don’t need to have seen it to understand this intro, but Ivan (The game creator) does a great job with DMing the campaign. Long intro over, please enjoy!

Snow fell in big flakes around the two-tiered cabin, creating a false sense of peacefulness in the town of Big Bear. The remote location of the mountains left a quiet atmosphere around the four men lounging around the living room as they recovered from a long day of work. Filming had wrapped up for the day, and most of the cast and crew of Smosh were off to the casino to celebrate their first successful day. The four that remained each had their own reasons; Wes and Joven knew they would blow all their money if they went, Lasercorn had never been a fan of gambling, and Sohinki had just eaten a sriracha snow cone and needed time to recover from the spicy treat.

Sohinki and Joven were passing the time by battling each other in a game of Hearth Stone. Wes leaned over the back of the couch, occasionally interrupting them to tell one or the other what play to make. Lasercorn was blocking all three of them out, instead playing his own game of Fire Emblem Awakening. He was looking forward to a quiet night in after the hectic day, but the loud voices of his friends made that near impossible. Luckily he was used to it, and had gotten pretty good at tuning them out. The match between Sohinki and Joven was heating up, and as the game progressed it produced a mixture of yelling at each other and yelling at Wes to quit backseat gaming. Sohinki was throwing smack talk at Joven, commenting that he was going to win. Just before he could take his victorious turn though, the Wi-Fi cut out. Their phones freeze the game to show a message that alerts of connectivity problems. Despite their efforts, they can’t get their phones to reconnect.

“Wes this is your fault, go fix the internet,” Joven jokingly yells, though slightly relieved that the loss of Wi-Fi stopped Sohinki from winning.

“What? How is this my.. fine,” Wes decides not to fight Joven’s logic and instead walks over to mess with the router. He unplugs it, plugs it back in, but the light indicating internet connection doesn’t start flashing like it normally did.

“I don’t know guys, it’s not coming back on,” Wes informs the group.

“Joven, call Matt and complain that the internet’s broken,” Sohinki groans. Joven laughs a bit, realizing Matt Raub was probably three drinks in by now and would be of no help. Nevertheless, he pulls out his phone to call him. It doesn’t even ring before an automated voice sounds over the line. 

“I’m sorry, all circuits are busy, try your call again later,” the prerecorded voice says. He tries again, but only gets the same message. Joven is washed over by a feeling of uneasiness, but tries to shake it off and blame it on poor reception through the snow.

“There’s nothing guys, the lines are down. Let’s just wait it out,” Joven says, trying to compose himself and settle back into the sofa. Lasercorn- unphased by all this- decides that now would be as good a time as any to grab some food. No reason to starve because of a lack of Wi-Fi. He gets up to get some cold pizza from the fridge. Sohinki walks over and extends his hand towards Lasercorn, who offers him a piece as well. Sohinki figured he’d regret it later, a mix of sriracha and dairy surely couldn’t mix well, but ate it anyway. Lasercorn on the other hand was completely satisfied with his late snack, and retreated back to the living room with the others. Sohinki starts to walk back into the living room too, but stops as something catches his ear. He slowly approaches the window, and his stomach drops as he hears an uncanny sound. It was impossible to describe, the only thing he could compare it too was the cry of an animal. Everyone else had been talking loudly about the Wi-Fi when Sohinki interjected.

“Guys, shut the hell up, and listen to this bleating out here. There’s a lot of frantic bleating happening,” Sohinki says, pinpointing the sound the best he could.

“Who’s bleeding, do you need a Band-Aid?” Joven asks from the other room. Sohinki rolls his eyes at his friend’s hearing loss.

“No bleating,” he says, making the word more clear.

“Oh bleating with a ‘t’,” Joven says as he walks into the kitchen. Wes and Lasercorn were close behind.

“Yeah, like the sound of the Taylor Swift goat,” Sohinki states, partially to clarify, but also as a vague attempt at lightening the unnerving mood.

“Yeah what the hell is that?” Lasercorn asks through a mouth full of pizza.

Suddenly it cuts out, leaving an eerie silence over the cabin.

“You guys heard that, right?” asks Sohinki once more, making sure everyone was aware of the strange noise.

“Yeah it’s probably Shayne or Matt Raub trying to scare us or something,” Joven says to comfort the others.

“Yeah they’re probably-,” Lasercorn says, taking a pause to swallow his food, “They’re probably just messing with us.”

“It’s probably just a couple animals, I’m not worried about it,” offers Wes, and they start retreating back to the living room.

“I mean, there’s no way I’m going out to check. Let’s be real here, it’s dark and there’s a wild animal that might have rabies or something. I am not checking,” Sohinki announces, and the others mumble agreements about remaining in the house. It didn’t seem like something any of them felt like exploring. Sohinki takes out his phone and tries once more to call Matt Raub, but the call is still unable to go through.

“So the phones aren’t gonna work guys,” he declares in defeat and throws his cell on the table.

For a few minutes things seem to go back to normal. Sohinki and Lasercorn are on their second slice of pizza and they’re all doing their best to calm themselves. Everything would be fine once everyone else got back from their night out.

Despite their hopeful attitudes, the calm they are hoping for never arrived. Less than five minutes after the animal noise, Red and white lights emanate from outside as the sound of sirens approach. They all jump as the sounds of squealing tires mixes with the alarms. Joven leaps over to peer through the large front window, and watches just in time to see an ambulance put on its brakes and fishtail into the intersection. Without warning, another car comes barreling towards the now stopped EMT and smashes into it, engine to engine. The driver is thrown through the window of the crumpled car and into the street. 

 “OH, did you see that?!” Joven exclaims, the rest running to the window to gaze upon the accident. In the frenzy of the situation Sohinki forgets about the other attempted calls and dials 911, only to be greeted by the same message as before. The four watch as people start flooding into the street to view the wreck. Wes and Sohinki start getting coats on, but Joven and Lasercorn don’t budge.

“Aren’t you going to come check it out?” Wes asks as he notices Joven standing to the side.

“You see that, that’s an ambulance right there, there’s nothing I can do that he can’t do. I’m just gonna watch it from here,” he says.

“Yeah but the paramedics could be hurt,” Wes points out. Joven nods reluctantly

“They’re could be a dead guy and I want to see that, I’ll go with you,” He says. Wes lets out a disapproving laugh at his comment.

“I’m going to go find a flashlight,” Wes states once his coat and shoes are on, and heads off to search while the others throw on their own winter gear. The three glance over every now and then at the carnage in the intersection. There was now a congregation of people blocking the sight of the wreck. Though the other three had decided to go out, Lasercorn was still on the fence.

“Hey Wes, did you find that flashlight?” Joven yells out impatiently.

“Yeah, I also found a couple other things. I got two flashlights and a first aid kit. I don’t know, maybe the EMT’s truck is destroyed we should take it with us,” Wes says.

 “I’ll go with you guys, but I need a flashlight,” Lasercorn announces. Wes hands one to Lasercorn upon his request. Wes is about to step into the cold winter air, but a gut feeling tells him he shouldn’t go out empty handed. He runs back to grab an average size hunting knife, stowing it in its sheath in his back pocket just to be safe. He joins Lasercorn, Sohinki, and Joven at the threshold once more.

“Joven you want to take anything?” Sohinki asks, but Joven furrows his eyebrows and shakes his head with a shrug.

“No, this is dumb, I’m gonna stay inside. It’s too cold.” Joven was trying not to let it show, but his excuse wasn’t really about the weather. He was uneasy about the crash, but played it off cool in front of his friends.

“C’mon Sohinki, let’s go!” Wes groans, as he waits for him to join them. Sohinki just shrugs at Joven and joins the rest of the group as they start trekking through the layer of snow. Once they get to the wreck, they see the full magnitude of the damage. The body that was thrown from the car is now in plain sight, and it is a mangled mess; it barely resembled the shape of a human at that point, and it was hard to make anything out through the blood. A long red streak could be seen on the road from where it skid across the icy pavement.

Wes, unable to handle the sight, is overcome with disgust and turns to the side to throw up. Sohinki puts his hand to his mouth at the scene, while Lasercorn does his best to decipher what happened. Once the initial shock of the sight clears, Sohinki taps on the shoulder of the nearest person.

“What happened, do you know why they crashed?” Sohinki inquired of the stranger. The man turned, he was younger with blonde hair and a matching goatee.

“I don’t know man, I just heard tires squealing and I came out and they were literally just crunched into each other. I’ve seen some bad wrecks man, but how did that even happen? These roads are dead,” he replied. 

Wes wipes his mouth on his sleeve, shaking off the feeling and does his best to get back to the group. He shields his eyes from the gore as he goes up to the others.

“Guys, let’s go check if the EMT’s are okay,” he says.

With the flashlight in hand, Wes peers into the front seat of the ambulance. The light is able to show the outline of two bodies, face down in deployed airbags. There’s no blood, but they aren’t conscious either.

“Wes, go and open the back and see if anyone’s in there,” Sohinki says once Wes reports what he saw in the front seat.

“I don’t know man..” says Wes in a concerned voice, clearly worried about vomiting again.

“Wes, if anyone is in there those engines can blow any minute,” Sohinki presses. Upon hearing this, Lasercorn starts taking steps away from the wreck to avoid his friend’s speculated explosion. Sohinki continues to egg Wes on, while also taking a few steps back.

“My experience with the last body.. If there was someone in the back they probably weren’t properly secured, they could have smashed into something. I’d rather somebody else look, like Lasercorn he looked okay,” Wes counters, noticing that both of them had been slowly backing away from the responsibility of opening the door.

“What are you standing around for you dicks, there’s somebody hurt inside of there!” An older, gruff man yells, and goes to open the doors himself. Sohinki peers over just enough to see the mess inside. There’s someone strapped to the gurney, hooked up to all kinds of still-beeping machines. He’s in full ski gear, and is groaning loudly. On the opposite side are the remains of the EMT; he’s painted against the wall, a clear mark of red where he hit his head. Two other men start trying to free the paramedics from the front of the ambulance.

“Sir are you alright? You hurt at all?” The gruff man asks the guy in the gurney.

“I’m in a damn EMT. They have every part of my strapped down, for God’s sake just let me sit up,” He replies, and when he’s cut free he’s able to get up with little trouble

“Why are you in the ambulance, what happened?” Sohinki inquires, now approaching the EMT.

“I was on a ski trail and I got lost off the side of it, I was out there for eight hours after it closed. They had to helicopter me out, frost bite,” he answers, sounding slightly dazed, “I saw some terrible things out there, I’ve been meaning to talk to the district about it here in town. But then, out of nowhere-”

He’s cut off by the sound of loud moaning from the front; the men had begun haphazardly removing the people in the front, clearly not paying any attention to possible injuries.

“Whoa. Whoa, Whoa, they could have broken bones, you need to relax,” Wes exclaims, running up to stop them.

“But if the cars are about to – or could possibly – explode or catch fire..” Lasercorn points out

“Yeah, I heard him say something about the car being all troubling and stuff,” One of the men states, and they continue to pull the injured paramedics from the crash.

“We have a first aid kit in our cabin, should I bring that, would anything help?” asks Lasercorn with an uneasy tone. The man who pulled the medics from the front seat looks at him with raised eyebrows.

“Son are you dumb? It’s an ambulance, there’s tons of medical supplies-”

Suddenly the EMT that was supposedly unconscious shoots up, eyes wide open, and grabs the man who was speaking. He sinks his teeth into his neck, taking a large chunk with him. The man screams as blood begins spurting from the wound.

“Zombie! There’s a zombie! Someone get him!” Sohinki yells, overcome with fear and surprise.

“Holy shit!” Wes cries out.

“He bit him!” Sohinki adds, backing away from the brutal attack. While the other two start running back to the cabin, Wes drops the flashlight he was holding and tries to rip the man away from the grip of the paramedic-turned-zombie. However, he underestimates the strength of the monster, and as he tries to pull away the victim, an artery bursts and sprays him in the face with blood. Wes stumbles to the ground, blinded by the red splatter coating his face.

“Wes get back over here, we’re going back to the cabin,” Lasercorn yells to his friend, lingering to make sure he’s able to get up.

Wes wipes the blood from his eyes and back-peddles away from the attack. He watches in horror as the zombie pushes himself up with his arms, and leaps into the air before landing on his victim and ripping him to shreds.

 “Holy shit!” Wes yells in shock, and gets to his feet. He pulls out the knife he had stowed and runs as fast as he can to the cabin. The other paramedic sits straight up in an inhuman way, leaps to his feet, and begins chasing after the group.

The three run to the door, Sohinki and Lasercorn in the lead with Wes right behind. The zombie is fast though, and soon he’s only ten feet behind Wes and gaining speed. He can hear the revolting sounds of gurgles and growls coming from the beast behind him.

“Joven open the door!” Sohinki yells, hoping he had seen the whole ordeal and was ready to aid them in their escape. Luckily he does, and opens the front door just in time for Lasercorn and Sohinki to dash through the frame. Wes is only a few yards away, and makes a desperate attempt for safety.

With Sohinki holding the door, ready to slam it, Wes tries to dive into the cabin. However, he doesn’t have enough distance between him and the zombie. When he goes to jump the zombie lunges forwards and grabs his feet, bringing both of them crashing to the floor halfway through the door frame. Wes slams his nose into the hard wood floor and blood immediately starts pouring down his face. The knife that he was holding clatters across the cabin entrance.

“Pull him in!” Joven shouts to Lasercorn, as he leans out the door to kick the zombie. His foot makes impact with its head, making it howl in pain. However, the force sends pain shooting through Joven’s foot and he stumbles back into the house. Meanwhile, Lasercorn completely ignores Joven’s request to aid Wes, and instead has the impulse to throw his flashlight at the zombie. Unfortunately, he puts too much momentum into it, and the heavy-duty light goes flying into Wes’s back. Wes seizes in pain, and Lasercorn lets out a string of curses at his terrible throw.

“What the hell! Grab the knife, grab the knife, what are you doing?!” Wes yells in painful aggravation as he struggles from the grasp of the monster. Sohinki reaches down for the knife and hands it to Lasercorn, who was left empty handed after the attempted throw.

“Give me that,” Joven demands hurriedly, realizing that handing the sharp object to Lasercorn may have been a poor choice.

“Okay, here you do it then,” he says and gladly hands over the weapon. Wes continues to try and pry himself away, pulling himself inside by the sides of the open door. Meanwhile, Sohinki starts to hears sounds coming from the behind them.

“Lasercorn, there’s definitely someone screaming and banging on the backdoor,” Sohinki tells him frantically, and motions with his head to go and check it out. Lasercorn runs off to find a weapon to defend against whatever was trying to enter their cabin.

“Are we sure this is a zombie?” Joven says hesitantly, looking at the knife in his hand and contemplating his actions.

“I just saw him bite that dude outside, did you see him spring to life? Oh, no you didn’t, because you were hiding in the house! Stab it!” Sohinki yells in an annoyed voice, upset by the waste of time.

Joven builds up the courage to kneel down and swing at the monster’s head, but he only manages to graze the side of its temple. The zombie barely acknowledges the blow.

Lasercorn had made his way into the kitchen by now, but the gravity of the situation had finally caught up to him. He’s overcome with a fear induced state of paralysis as the floodgates open in his mind. He’s unable to move, the sounds of his friends yells and the pounding at the door mixing together in his mind as he begins hyperventilating.

Wes, despite his struggle, finally manages to get his feet on the zombie’s shoulders and tries to push him away. Unfortunately this gives the zombie access to Wes’s calf, and it sink its teeth into his left leg. Wes yells out at the stinging pain rippling through his lower half.

“Joven, here’s the plan, you pull Wes in and I slam the door on the thing,” Sohinki yells in desperation at the worsening situation.

“He’s too strong!” Joven retaliates, and readies to stab it again. Wes manages to turn his upper half around to face the zombie, grabs the flashlight Lasercorn threw, and hits it in the head over and over. Each strike causes the beast to sink its teeth deeper into him, and Wes yells at the pain at each swing. Joven uses this distraction to jam the knife into the side of the zombie’s head. Its jaw goes slack and it slumps to the ground, dead.

“You owe me bitch,” Joven says to him, and helps Sohinki pull him into the house. The door is slammed and locked, and everyone finally has the chance to process the insane chaos of the past five minutes. Lasercorn had been able to regain control, and was now wandering around the kitchen helplessly.

“Pull it together Lasercorn,” he says to himself, but his mind is too clouded to find any kind of weapon he could use against whatever was outside. While everyone else was in a frenzy, Sohinki runs to the back door to find that the sounds had stopped. All that’s left on the glass door is the streak of a bloody hand print. He cautiously looks out the door, and sees the tall darkened figure of a zombie feasting on a body. Sohinki’s mutters curses to himself as he realizes that the pounding on the back door was another person trying to get help. They were too late though, and now the stranger was dead. He slowly turns back to the group.

“Guys, we got a problem,” Sohinki says, his voice wavering.

“What the fuck happened, what the fuck just happened!? Lasercorn get me a towel or get me a shirt right now,” Joven exclaims, pacing around the room waving his hands wildly.

“Put a pan on the burner,” Wes instructs through gritted teeth, and Lasercorn follows the order.

“Guys! Someone’s in the back being torn apart by a zombie,” Sohinki yells over the insanity. Everyone freezes and the room is overcome with silence, “There’s a man on the back porch, and he’s being eaten by a fucking zombie.”

“They’ve been eaten?” Joven says slowly, eyes wide in a worried expression.

“They’re being eaten, yes –”

“Then stop yelling,” Joven whispers loud enough to cut Sohinki off, but it’s too late. The zombie that was once over the bloodied mess whips his head to the sound, and bounds to the plexiglass door. The bangs and barking echo through the house.

“Shit,” Sohinki whispers, backing out of view from the door.

Wes had been holding his wound up to this point, taking in the increasingly worse situation. Joven turns from the door to help his wounded friend, using his flannel shirt to tie up Wes’s leg like a tourniquet. Lasercorn and Sohinki back away from the angry zombie, attempting to find anything to defend themselves. They each managed to find some improvised weapons, brandishing a shovel and pool cue respectively.

“Do we want to block the door, or go upstairs and block the staircase, because we need to block something,” Sohinki asks over the hectic sounds of the banging.

“Too many windows, we got to get upstairs. Lasercorn is the pan hot?” Joven inquires, starting to help Wes up.

“The pans not hot yet guys,” Lasercorn informs.

“Let’s start blocking the stairs and wait for it to get hot,” Wes suggests, and Joven nods as he hoists him up.

“Let’s get you upstairs now,” Joven says to Wes, and slings him over his shoulder as they make their way to the staircase.

“Let’s block the door first,” Sohinki says to Lasercorn.

“Sohinki move the couch in front of the back door. Wes, come on, I’m gonna drag you upstairs. Lasercorn, as soon as that’s hot, meet us upstairs,” Joven lays out to the plan to the group. Lasercorn and Sohinki move towards the couch, while Joven grabs the med kit and helps Wes limp up the stairs.

“Let’s move this couch,” Sohinki says in a pseudo-inspirational voice, and they crouch down to lift it. However, they severely underestimate the weight of the giant object and aren’t able to get it high enough off the ground to get anywhere.

“Sohinki, up more on your end, no up more!” Lasercorn yells as they teeter with the sofa.

“I’m weak man,” Sohinki groans.

While the two struggle with the couch, Joven and Wes are able to make it into one of the bedrooms. Wes lowers himself onto the bed, and Joven inspects the wound. Wes winces in pain as he slowly rolls up his pant leg to reveal the messy bite. The wound is covered with blood, and Joven can’t see the extent of the damage. He unties the tourniquet shirt from Wes’s leg and uses it to gently wipe the blood away. Wes yelps at the contact and grabs the sheets in a clenched fist. Joven can see where the teeth of the monster had sunk into his leg, creating two semi-circles in his calf. There’s a lot of bruising, but the gashes themselves weren’t deep enough to require intense medical attention. Joven reaches into the med kit and pulls out some hydrogen peroxide.

“This is going to sting,” he warns, but Wes shakes his head.

“Let me do it,” He argues, grabbing the bottle, “It won’t be so bad if I know it’s coming.”

“Alright, be my guest,” Joven complies. Wes unscrews the lid, bites down on his jacket, and pours the cleansing liquid onto the wound. Joven winces as Wes screams into the leather, feeling sympathy for his wounded friend.

“You’re doing great man, just wrap it up and you’ll be good,” Joven says in an attempt to comfort him as he hands him the gauze and bandages. Wes quickly wraps up his leg, grimacing at the pain, but eventually gets it taken care of. He swallows a few pain pills to try and ease the injury.

 “Hey, turns out I’m a bitch, can you help with this couch.” They hear Sohinki yell from below. Joven sighs and looks back at Wes.

“Damn it. Wes I love you like a brother, if I need to kill you, I need you to tell me,” Joven says with a serious look, having realized that there could be a chance that the zombie’s bite could be infectious.

“I’m fine, go help them, I’m good,” Wes mutters, shooing Joven off. In the back of his mind, he ran over the idea that this bite could turn him, but tries to shake it away and focus on the immediate threat below.

 Joven runs down the steps and tosses the pan in the sink after turning off the burner, seeing as Wes didn’t need it. He goes over to Sohinki’s end of the couch and grabs one of the corners. They do their best to lift together, but they still can’t seem to move in unison.

 “Hey, you guys maybe want to search the house for a forklift since neither one of you can fucking lift a couch! Lift you’re end!” Lasercorn yells, getting more and more frustrated as the stress began to build even greater.

“That’s not helping, just lift on three. One, two, three!” Joven yells, and they are able to hoist the couch high enough off the ground to move it against the back door. They breathe in relief as they manage to accomplish at least one small task. The three back away and Joven runs to grab a poker from the fireplace, finally getting his hands on an impromptu weapon.

“Since we worked so well together just now, perhaps we should go barricade the front door,” Sohinki says sarcastically to the others. 

“Front door or upstairs?” Joven questions.

“I think we secure the house best we can, and if we end up having to barricade the staircase then we do that.” Sohinki suggests.

“How many zombies out front?”

“There was only the one that we saw that you killed, and the one in the back.” After saying this, Sohinki turns to examine the zombie who had been battering the door, and realization sweeps over him. For the first time, he really focuses on the tall, dark figure threatening them.

“You guys.. That’s Flitz. Flitz is a zombie,” he says in disbelief. The three stand in disturbed awe and watch as the shell of their friend continues to slam himself into the sliding door.

“That isn’t Flitz,” Joven counters, trying to distract the group from the reality of the situation, “He’s not himself anymore. Come on, we can’t just stand around.”

It takes a minute for them to regain sense, as they all stare at the familiar zombie. Just like that, a person they knew and loved was gone. Taken by an ill twist of events. Sohinki is the first to move, breaking contact from the back door as his eyes tear up. He couldn’t focus on that now, they weren’t safe enough to process the horror of reality.

“That door is holding for now, we need to make sure the front door is secured,” He tells his friends, and has to grab their arms to pull them to the other side of the house. Lasercorn and Joven get ready to move an armchair in front of the large wooden door while Sohinki peers out the window. He’s just able to see the figure of woman in a long coat and beanie eating the paramedic zombie that was now laying on the porch. He doesn’t have time to decipher who it is though, as in seconds a face jumps into view. Olivia, eyes pure white and covered in blood, punches through the glass of the window and grabs Sohinki’s jacket. Lasercorn raises his shovel at the sudden noise, and luckily Sohinki is able to brace himself enough to not be pulled through the window. Olivia repeatedly slams him into the glass, trying to break it. Her arm is torn by the shards and blood mixes with the fluff of her coat.

“Guys you think you can help me real quick,” Sohinki pleads, his words rising and falling in rhythm with the repetitive thud of his body against glass. Lasercorn was already next to him, lifting the shovel and readying himself to slam it into the mutilated arm.

“Careful with the shovel, she’s really strong,” Sohinki warns, still being slammed into the window.

“Sohinki, brace yourself and try not to be against the window!” Lasercorn cautions. However, Sohinki is able to grab Olivia’s wrist and twist it enough to throw her arm away. The zombified version of their friend tries desperately to reach into the home, but isn’t able to get in. Lasercorn backs away with the rest of the group, and they realize they only have moments to decide what their next move will be before another disaster strikes.

“Do we go upstairs with Wes or do we go out the garage?” Joven questions frantically.

“Let’s check the garage, are there vehicles?” Lasercorn asks.

“We don’t have a lot of time to check,” warns Sohinki, who is recovering from being slammed into the window so much. Lasercorn doesn’t wait any longer, and runs to the garage door. The first miracle of the night occurs, as he flips the lights on and sees not only the van, but the keys sitting in the ignition as well.

“Yes!” He exclaims, the moment of victory making him forget about the consequences of their yelling from earlier. “Guys, we got to get out of here, let’s get in the van and drive away! Everyone to the van!”

Sohinki had run upstairs already, and was helping Wes down the steps by the time he heard Lasercorn’s announcement. The band of misfit survivors stumble into the garage, equipped with a shovel, a pool cue, a fire poker, and an injured giant with nothing but a flashlight. Sohinki helps Wes into the back of the cargo van, and Wes immediately starts passing film equipment out from it. Sohinki tosses them haphazardly aside while Lasercorn starts the vehicle. Joven hits the garage door button, and he’s able to get into the passenger seat just as zombies begin pouring into the room.

“Gun it backwards!” Sohinki yells to Lasercorn as he looks behind them at the growing pile of monsters. The most concerning of the group is a giant and gorging zombie; he’s covered in stretch marks and so bloated that he looks like he could burst at any moment. Realizing there wasn’t any other option, Lasercorn reverses it backwards towards the behemoth.

“Die fatty!” He yells, and they all brace themselves as the van thuds over multiple bodies. Lasercorn can feel the rear tire wobble, alerting him to the fact that it took some damage. Nevertheless, he throws it into drive and peels out of the drive way. None of them were prepared to see the carnage of the intersection as they pull into though. All along the street are more zombies pulling people from their homes. Corpses and undead are everywhere. The orange glow of a fire can be seen illuminating the night sky to the south. They all avert their eyes and try not to focus on what’s happening around them.

“We got to go the right, since we can’t go to the left,” Sohinki says to Lasercorn, pointing out the EMT crash from an hour ago.

“We can drive around it,” Joven argues.

“Drive around it and get to Main Street,” Wes suggests.

“No are you kidding me, Main Street is gonna be filled with zombies!” Joven argues.

“There’s a gun store on Main Street!”

“That’s gonna be the first place people go!”

“Let’s just try and get to Main Street and the gun store,” Lasercorn says, taking the lead and settling the debate for the two. Joven sighs and shakes his head, not feeling great about the plan. Lasercorn carefully drives around the accident.

“Take a right,” Wes instructs, and Lasercorn does. They drive on for a bit in silence, everyone trying to understand what had just happened. There were zombies. Their friends were dead. Sohinki’s mind flashes to the woman he saw on their porch just minutes ago. A sickening feeling fills his stomach as he thinks he knows who it was.

“I think that zombie on the porch was Mari,” He says, somber and without inflection. There’s a short silence as the three take in his words, none of them wanting to believe it.

“We don’t know that,” Joven counters.

“It looked like her. It was wearing similar-”

“I said we don’t know that.”

Lasercorn’s knuckles were turning white as he gripped the steering wheel, thinking of Flitz and Olivia, and now Mari. He doesn’t realize that he’s pushing the gas harder and harder, flying around the corners and hills far too quickly

“Whoa man you’re going too fast! Ease up dude, ease up!” Joven warns, but it doesn’t matter. Just as he finishes saying it, the van turns a corner and is quickly met with a three car pileup. Lasercorn slams the brakes, but he isn’t able to keep the car in an upright position. They miss the crashed cars, but the sudden stop on the icy road causes the van to lose control and slide off the pavement. It veers left, and they can hear metal screeching on concrete as it tips into a ditch on the side of the road.

Joven and Lasercorn are buckled into the front seat, but the others aren’t as lucky. Wes crashes into the side of the van, and is then further injured as Sohinki slams into his body. The force of the second impact crushes Wes’s left forearm between himself and the door. He yells out in pain as he feels his bone fracture, but tries not to let on that he had sustained the new injury.

“Wes, do you need me to kill you yet?” Joven mumbles after a moment of silence.

“I’ll kill all of you,” Wes groans out once Sohinki has rolled off of him. He’s breathing harshly through gritted teeth, and the others take notice of his struggle.

“Damn it, alright. Now we listen to me, no more Lasercorn leading,” Joven says to the group.

“I’m fine with that,” says Wes, who is doing shockingly well at subsiding the immense pain rippling through his body. Joven moves around in the seat he’s strapped in to, and slowly rolls down his window, He cranes his head to peer onto the scene in front of them. He’s able to make out four zombies bashing onto a car, appearing to try and break into the vehicle. Luckily none of them had paid any attention to their wrecked van.

“Hey, do you see anyone in the cars,” Sohinki whispers to Joven. He looks past the zombies and through the cracked windows he can see movement. There’s also a faint yelling from inside. Joven turns back to Sohinki and nods yes to his question.

“Hero moment, damn..” Joven mutters the words under his breath as he quietly unlatches the van door. He unbuckles, climbs out, and gets good footing before pulling Lasercorn out with him. They both drop into the snowy ground, a slight crunch of the ice under their footsteps. Sohinki stands and pokes his head out of the window to talk with them.

“Here’s the thing, we got to be real quiet about moving Wes. He’s gonna need help getting out of the van,” He notes. “Quietly open the side door to the van, and I’m gonna help push him up to you guys. We’re gonna lift him out of the van.”

“Alright, then once he’s out I’m gonna give you guys a head start, and I’m gonna honk the horn-” Joven starts to say, but is quickly cut off.

“No, not our horn!” Sohinki argues shaking his head.

“Yeah! So that we can get the zombies away from the humans,” Joven explains, but Sohinki is nowhere near on board with the plan.

“You’re an idiot don’t do that!”

“So we’re just gonna let them die in there?”

“Yes, yes we are.” Joven stares at Sohinki dumbfounded for a moment. Never had he thought that the man he called his close friend would be willing to abandon another human in danger. Sohinki had a glimmer of guilt in his eyes at his own words, but didn’t take back his statement. Trying to help those people could mean getting themselves killed, and he couldn’t take that risk.

“We don’t have to go out that way, we can go out the back of the cargo van,” Wes interrupts the silent moment, and the two who had been arguing are pulled back to the situation at hand.

“Right,” Sohinki says, feeling a bit foolish for over-complicating Wes’s removal.

“Yeah, okay,” Joven agrees, and he and Lasercorn move to the back side of the van. Sohinki slides in next to Wes, helping him move towards the exit. Wes pulls the handle to release the door, but loses grip of it, and gravity brings it all the way down to hit the side. The four freeze, praying that none of the zombies heard the sudden sound. Through the silence they can hear footsteps crunch through snow from the front of the van. The creature appears to be walking, not fully aware of their presence.

“Hey fearless leader, you don’t want Lasercorn to be in charge anymore-” Lasercorn starts to say to Joven, his volume isn’t quite enough to keep their position secret. Sohinki throws his hand over his mouth.

“Hey! You need to be whispering right now,” Sohinki warns in the quietest stern voice he can muster, but it’s too late. Multiple pairs of footsteps begin to aggressively make their way to their location, and it isn’t long before two zombies charge into view.

“There’s two of them and four of us!” Lasercorn declares, readying his weapon.

“Um, three!” Wes corrects, as he pulls himself further into the van and out of harm’s way, realizing he didn’t have a fighting chance with his injuries. As he’s scooting back though, he accidentally puts weight on his arm and lets out an involuntary yell of pain. The pounding on the other car stops, and Wes knows that the zombies there were now sure to be lured over by his scream.

Outside, the other three jump into action. Lasercorn swings his shovel at the head of one of the zombies. He only grazes it, but in a moment of dumb luck it loses balance enough to fall backwards and smack it’s head on the concrete. It remains lifeless on the ground. Joven uses his knife to stab the other one in the eye, and Sohinki smack it over the head with his pool cue. The cue snaps in half, and Joven overestimate his swing and misses the eye, stabbing it in the shoulder. Sohinki backs away as the beast flails around in an attempt to free itself from Joven’s knife.

Lasercorn pauses and watches as Sohinki throws his snapped pool cue like a javelin at the zombie that’s wrestling with Joven. The cue completely misses, landing off to the side in the dirt. Joven still isn’t able to get free of the zombies hold. While this is happening, Wes decides that being stuck in the back of the van isn’t doing anything to help, and rolls to the edge of the open door. He doesn’t make much of an attempt to hide his yells of pain, seeing as attention was already completely on them now.

Sohinki, now empty handed, notices the poker that Joven once held was now dropped on the ground. He grabs it, and while Joven grapples with the monster, Lasercorn and Sohinki both try and swing at the beast. Lasercorn has to reel back at the last minute as Joven’s head blocks his swing. Luckily Sohinki has a clean shot, and is able to bash the poker into the zombies head. It slumps to the ground, dead.

“I love you,” Joven breathes out, recuperating from the close call. Sohinki stands a bit stunned as well, surprised at his own strength. It doesn’t last long though, and Joven tries to warn Sohinki as a zombie comes barreling into his back. He’s knocked to the ground, the wind taken out of him. Despite being caught off guard, Sohinki is able to escape the hold of the zombie by slipping out of his coat. As he’s scrambling away, Joven is right there to stab the it in the back of its neck. The blade is just long enough to go through its head and out on of the eyes. The zombie goes slack, and falls to the ground. Sohinki runs to get up on the top of the van, and Joven runs to aid the others.

Another monster starts running at Lasercorn, but luckily Wes is close enough to it that as it passes the back of the van he’s able to trip it and send it sprawling in the snow. He’s now face to face with the beast, and in an attempt to stun it, uses his flashlight to blind it. Lasercorn tries to swing his shovel at it, but it’s struggling so much that he completely misses. Joven is right there though, ready to attack.

“Do I have to do everything?” He quips, as he kneels down to the prone zombie and stabs his knife into its skull. He pulls it back out, the blade dripping with blood.

“That’s how you do it,” Joven sassily says to Lasercorn, who grumbles something about having the situation under control. The moment is broken by the loud slam of something hitting the undercarriage of the van. A zombie is pressed against the rolled vehicle, but doesn’t attack. Joven looks up to see another zombie just crest the top of the hill. It takes in the carnage in front of it, as though registering the fact that it’s brothers had all been slain. To the groups horror, the zombie unhinges its jaw, and from its mouth releases a swarm of insects onto the scene below.

“Guys, get in here and close the door!” Sohinki yells in horror, as he slides into the top of the van and slams the door shut. He pulls Wes far enough in to close the back doors as well, now completely shutting themselves off from the insects outside. Lasercorn takes off running away from the bees and towards the crashed cars. Joven was getting ready to climb into the van as well, but spots his friend fleeing.

“Son of a bitch,” He groans, deciding to run after his friend instead of leaving him by himself. They get to the car that had previously been assaulted by zombies, and peer inside. A teenage boy is sitting there, tears streaming down his face.

“Open the door, open the door,” Lasercorn begs, but the boy shakes his head in fear.

“I’m fine. Look at my eyes, they’re fine,” Lasercorn says, motioning to his the fact that his eye’s aren’t whited out like the zombies. He just sits in silence, unmoving.

“Pull it together, we can still get out of this. Let me in the car.” Finally his pleads get through, and he opens the passenger door. Lasercorn jumps in, followed closely behind by Joven. There is no time for introductions, the two older men simply tell the teen what was going to happen next. They certainly weren’t planning on taking in another survivor, but they weren’t going to abandon him.

“There’s a cabin over there, we’re gonna try and get to the cabin,” Joven says to the two survivors sitting in the crashed car.

From inside the van, Wes and Sohinki are helpless to watch as the hornet sized bugs swarm their hiding spot. Sohinki watches one land on the door, and make its way through the crack and inside the car. He reacts quickly, and the insect oozes an iridescent green liquid as he squishes it with his fire poker. Now able to get a closer look, he’s disturbed to see that the bug has a huge stinger. Perhaps more disturbing than that though is the fact that it’s made entirely of some kind of metal.

“Wes, get a look at this thing, are you seeing this?” Sohinki breathes out in disbelief.

“Whoa.. What the hell is going on?” He answers, equally as baffled.

“I don’t know, that’s some weird shit. Look, we’re gonna die if we stay here. We should get out of the car,” Sohinki says, keeping an eye on the swarm of insects. Luckily they had begun to move away from their vehicle, leaving only the zombie from earlier as a threat.

“Okay, my leg’s not hurting quite so much, I think I can get out,” Wes agrees.

“Well here’s what we’re gonna do: I’m gonna fling the door open, were gonna make a break for it, and make it to Joven and Lasercorn. Now keep in mind, we got to go quick, so I don’t know that I’ll be holding that door for long.”

“That’s fine, just hold it for a little bit.”

The two make their way to the back door, and slowly open it. The zombie that had been next to the van was now aimlessly wandering the street, giving them the perfect chance to escape. Sohinki climbs out and holds the door open just long enough for Wes to ungracefully clamber out. Thankfully Wes is able to hold in his groans of pain, and they get on the ground without alerting any monsters. They are shocked to see another person climb out of the car with Joven and Lasercorn. The five meet up, and take a moment to formulate a plan.

“What’s the plan?” Sohinki whispers. The five look cautiously at the zombie wandering nearby. It seems to look straight at them, but doesn’t move towards the group.

“We gotta get to the cabin,” Joven states, motioning to the large house to their left.

The rest head Joven’s words, and begin making their way towards the building. Lasercorn helps hold Wes up so he can move faster without putting too much pressure on his wounded leg. They’re able to make it to the front door without alerting the zombies, but another threat soon arises. While Sohinki and Lasercorn look for a way into the building, Joven notices a small buzzing noise. He watches in horror as one of the bugs makes its way towards them, and lands on the back of the boys neck. It slowly crawls to the up the back of his head and into the middle of his forehead.

“Don’t move,” Joven hushes the trembling boy. He slowly inches his knife towards his head, trying to push the bug off of him with the tip of his blade. He barely manages to get the bug to flutter onto the knife, but it doesn’t help. It takes its massive stinger and plunges it deep into teen’s forehead.

“NO!” Joven yells. The others turn to watch as the boy screams. His eyes roll into the back of his head until his pupils are gone and all that’s left is white. Without even seeing what happened, the other three realize immediately what was going on.

“Fucking kill him Joven, you have to do it now!” Sohinki shouts.

“You got to kill him!” Wes agrees in anguish. The teen begins convulsing, and Joven takes his knife and plunges it into the infected boy. He falls limp, and the bug crumples with him. Joven doesn’t have time to process what he had just done, he knows know they need to get out before the zombies start chasing after them. While the other’s go left, Joven goes right in hopes that the monsters would follow him and not his friends.

The entire house is surrounded by a wooden, eight foot fence. The group of three reach the left side of the house, only to find a ‘Beware of Dog’ sign nailed to the fence. Realizing it could be dangerous to climb into a backyard with a hostile dog, Wes shines his light into the windows, and see’s the house has been practically torn apart. However was here was packing up like they were trying to leave in a hurry. Lasercorn, now seeing that the place appears to be empty, signals between his shovel and the window. Wes gives a nod, and that’s enough. He holds it above his head, ready to smash into the glass, but Sohinki grabs it before he can do anything.

“Don’t break the window man! You’ll make a noise and all these bugs are gonna come flying in,” Sohinki quietly warns, lowering the shovel to Lasercorn’s side. He peers into the yard through the slats of the fence to see if he can spot the dog. Wes shines his light so he can see better, and Sohinki notices a large dog house with a chain attached to it. The snow in the yard is untouched, besides a distinct perimeter of footprints around the dog house. Plenty of paw prints can be seen, but there’s no dog in sight.

On the other side of the house, Joven was lucky enough to find a trash bin sitting up against the giant fence. With a bit of effort, he’s able to climb over the fence and drop into the backyard. He hadn’t seen the sign warning of a dog, but it didn’t matter. He makes his way to the sliding glass door of the house without any issues. As soon as he opens the door he’s hit with an odd, organic smell, almost like compost.

“Guys are you in here?” Joven asks hesitantly, but gets no answer.

Wes picks up on Joven saying something from inside the house, so he shines his light back through the window. Joven sees the beam bathe across the room, moving from the kitchen to the backyard, and finally to the dog house. Now he notices the presence of the animal, as he hears a growling coming from inside the shelter. He slams the door shut, and a large Saint Bernard comes barreling out in the open. From what Joven can tell, it looks like a normal dog. An angry, but normal dog.

He ignores the animal, instead running to the source of the light. The three are waving their arms, and he can see Wes mouthing the words, “Open the window, open the window!”

Joven pops the screen out, and Sohinki and Lasercorn jump in. Wes does his best to keep quiet as the others help him in, but the pain is too much. Muffled screams still sound through the house as Wes bites down on his coat. It almost turns to crying as he lands awkwardly on his arm, aggravating the fracture. He takes a deep breath, steadying himself as he lays on the floor. He assures everyone he’s fine, despite the obvious agony he had been feeling.

Outside the house, the four notice that the dog was no longer barking. Rather, it was sitting as far towards the door as the chain allowed, watching them. Sohinki goes up to the door, and looks at the seemingly harmless animal.

“Let’s let the dog in,” He says, earning confused looks from everyone one else, “He’s a sweet animal. It’s a Saint Bernard, they’re so friendly.”

Joven starts to object, but an audible whining can be heard from outside. He sighs, rubbing his face, but gives in.

“Fine, Sohinki go get the door.”

“Why am I always getting the door? The last time I got the door, fucking zombie-Olivia started smashing me around!” He protests.

“It was your idea. Get the dog,” Joven urges, and the whining from the animal only makes Sohinki feel more guilty. So he sneaks up, opens the door, and makes his way outside. He gently speaks to the dog as he nears him, finally getting close enough to unchain him. It comes running into the house, followed shortly behind by Sohinki. The dog bounces in, sniffing each of the men before resting at their feet.

“What’s his name?” Joven asks.

“I say we name you Reginald,” Lasercorn suggests.

“You can’t just name a dog that already has a name,” Joven argues. Sohinki grabs the tag to see if there’s any information on it.

“His collar says Farfel.” He announces.

“Never mind his name is Reginald now,” Joven states.

“No the collar says Farfel.”

“Who names their dog Farfel?”

“I think it’s pronounced far-fa-lay,” Lasercorn states, but the other two don’t seem to listen.

“Guys his name is Farfel,” Sohinki says, effectively ending the name debate. Joven sighs.

The four take a moment to appreciate the giant, slobbering dog at their feet. It was a nice break from the horror of their reality. Wes was still curled up on the floor, trying not to move and aggravate his injuries any further than they already had.

“Wes, lie down on the couch,” Joven says, helping him to his feet. Wes groans, but agrees and the two work their way over to the floral patterned couch in the nearby living room.

“We need to look for weapons and we need to check for zombies,” Sohinki states.

“And also dog food,” Lasercorn adds in a low voice.

“Good idea, you look for dog food,” Joven gestures towards Lasercorn, then towards Sohinki, “And you look for zombies –”

“No I’m not looking for zombies!” Sohinki argues.

“You’ve killed the most, you look for zombies!” Wes says from the sofa. Sohinki walks up to Joven and lifts the hand holding the knife.

“See this knife? This is what you’re good for!” he states. Once again, Joven knows he’s not winning this argument.

“Okay Sohinki, you grab the flashlight, and you go first,” Joven commands. Lasercorn decides to join them, and they start walking towards the large staircase.

“Guys, while you’re upstairs can you please look for pain pills?” Wes moans out his request. They acknowledge him, and begin ascending the steps. As they do though, Farfel sneaks beside them, letting out a low bark at the second story, before walking back with a whimper. None of them take this as a good sign, but continue up nonetheless. Farfel turns back as Wes calls him to his side. The big dog plops on top of Wes’s stomach, barely missing both his injuries.

Upstairs, the group enters a hallway with four closed doors. Sohinki turns to the first one.

“Alright, chill out, I’ve seen this on the walking dead,” He whispers, and hits his fist into the door three times. Joven starts to curse him out, but stops when he hears a zombie run into the door.

“I think they’re blind, back at the car crash they only seemed to be attracted to noise,” Lasercorn notes, referencing the fact that the beast had just run full force into a solid, wooden door.

“Now on the show, they slowly open the door, don’t give it a lot of room to come through, and stab it. That’s your job, I’m shining the light, I’m doing my job,” Sohinki points to Joven.

“I don’t want that job anymore! Lasercorn killed a zombie without even doing anything to it, he’s the magic man!” Joven objects.

“I know that you’re better with that knife than anyone else! Just open the door ever so slightly, and get him,” Sohinki argues.

“What if we don’t open that door at all and go into the other doors?” Joven tries to divert his responsibility of killing yet another zombie.

“Let’s check the other rooms,” Lasercorn agrees. They do, and luckily there are no other zombies to deal with. The three begin searching around, finding two bedrooms. Neither turned up anything useful. They moved onto a bathroom, where Joven begins looking for a first aid kit.

“Wait didn’t we have one with us? Sohinki did you grab the first aid kit that Wes had?” He asks.

“Nah man there were bugs, I freaked out,” Sohinki admits, quickly realizing something. “Oh wait, I never told you about the bugs!”

“What? What happened”

 “So they’re these metal bugs. It sounds weird, but they’re metal with glass inside,” Sohinki says, trying his best to explain them. Joven takes a moment try and comprehend the bizarre insects. They discuss what they might be while they search through everything one last time. Again, nothing is found, so they head back to the first room.

“Okay, I’m ready,” Joven says, mentally and physically preparing himself.

“I’ll open the door a crack and then hold it there,” Lasercorn offers.

“Bad things happen when you do things,” Joven warns, half joking and half not.

“Well I’m shining the light!” Sohinki defends.

“I don’t want to open the door anyways!” Lasercorn counters.

The pounding inside the room only gets harder as the three debate between themselves.

“Fine. Lasercorn just get the door,” Joven grumbles.

Lasercorn ducks down below Joven to give him room to swing at the zombie, and cracks the door. It opens just wide enough for a zombie with a blonde ponytail to get it’s arm through, as it attempts wildly to get out. Lasercorn is steady though, and Joven grabs it’s arm and stabs it in the eye. It slumps to the ground, and Joven forces the body to the side as he opens the door all the way. They file into the room, and are immediately stunned by what they see. An entire corner of the room has been covered with a strange honeycomb looking substance. Upon closer inspection, they see that the it appears to be mostly made of some kind of organic material with bits of metal laced throughout it.

“Let’s burn this place down..” Lasercorn says at the sight of the unknown substance. They all had the same thought, and they also realized that whatever this was had to be connected to the metal bugs.

“We gotta get out of here,” Sohinki states, and they all back out of the room. Things only become more strange though, as a bright light bursts through the window in the hallway. A low humming starts getting louder and louder, and it feels like the entire cabin is shaking.

“Um, guys?” Wes yells in a panic to his friends. They don’t respond though. All they can do is watch in awe as a giant air ship comes into view, creating a darkened shape against the brand new sunrise peaking over the horizon.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On January 23rd, 2016, the first sting occurred.  
> That evening the outbreak began, and it began in the small town of Big Bear.

The cabin is filled with stunned silence as the four survivors watch the world around them. The loud humming of the air ship outside rattles their brains and makes it impossible to jump into action. First zombies, then metal bugs, and now a foreign aircraft? It was all too much to handle, and the men didn’t know if whatever was landing was a friend or a foe.

Lasercorn hesitantly approaches the window and peers out to watch the giant floating object touch down in a clearing close by. He see hundreds of figures start flooding out of it, humans as far as he can tell. The sound of rapid gunfire soon follows.

“What the hell do we do? Who’s out there shooting?” Sohinki asks in a panic. They could hear the gunfire getting closer, now accompanied by shouting. Definitely human voices.

“We don’t know if the people out there are on our side,” Lasercorn says as he watches them run in the direction of their cabin, “They could be military though.”

“Did you see that air ship? That doesn’t look like the United States military,” Joven counters. He runs to the stairs, looking down to see Wes struggling to get up off the couch. Farfel was standing next to him, cowering from the sound of gunfire.

“You two help Wes upstairs, and hide wherever you can fit him,” Joven instructs.

“What about you?” Lasercorn asks.

“I’m going to wait downstairs. If those people come in here they might search the house. I’ll wait down there while you hide, and tell them I’m alone. If they’re here to help, then I’ll come get you,” He explains. Lasercorn immediately shakes his head.

“We’re not going to let you sacrifice yourself like that. We’re in this together,” He counters.

“Wes is hurt, and you two barely have real weapons. We don’t have time to argue, we have to get Wes upstairs.” Joven wasn’t going to budge, and the sounds were only getting closer to the house. Sohinki and Lasercorn follow him downstairs as he explains the plan to Wes. He also tries to argue, but Joven is still set on his idea. Sohinki slings Wes over his shoulder and the two head up the stairs as fast as they can, Farfel following close behind them. Lasercorn stays back though.

“Come on man, you gotta go!” Joven says. Lasercorn shakes his head.

“I’m staying with you. Two is better than one.”

“You don’t have a weapon.”

“I’ll get one.”

“David.. If there’s one person who needs to stay alive, it’s you. Tyler needs you.” Lasercorn’s breath catches in his throat at the mention of his son’s name. He hadn’t had time to think about his wife and child through all this, and now his heart wrenched at the thought of them being harmed. Tyler would be one in five days, and he hadn’t thought that he’d miss his son’s first birthday. But he couldn’t dwell on that.

“You need me right now,” He says, face unmoving. Joven doesn’t protest again, just gives him a solemn nod. Lasercorn grabs one of the knives that was left in the knife block, and now barely equipped the two run to the front door. They each hide behind a wall on either side and wait for whoever may come bursting into the cabin.

“Don’t start stabbing right away, wait and see if they announce who they are,” Joven warns, not wanting to harm someone who was there to save them. The two wait, absolutely terrified. Their hearts were beating faster than ever. Zombies were one thing, they were just husks of former people that could be taken down with a knife to the skull. But humans, and humans that were armed with automatic weapons, were completely different.

Less than a minute after they get into position, a loud pounding echoes through the short hallway leading from the front door. Neither of the men move, instead exchange a worried glance. The pounding comes one more time, followed by a muffled voice shouting “US military personnel, open the door!”. Lasercorn furrows his brows and motions towards the front door, as though to ask if they should let them in. Joven shakes his head. They could be lying, he wasn’t going to just take their word for it.

They hear a loud crack, like the sound of wood being smashed. One more time, two more times, and then the door is flung open. Joven brings his finger to his lips, motioning for Lasercorn to remain quiet.

“Military personnel! Come out with your hands on your head!” The voice of a man booms through the house. Footsteps quickly approach their position, and Joven realizes they don’t really have a plan. Lasercorn looks nervously at him, trying to figure out what to do as well, when two armed men round the corner. They’re each met with assault rifles pointed at their chests.

“Drop the weapons and put your hands on your head!” The man shouts once more. The two freeze, still holding their knives in a defensive position.

“Drop them or we will shoot!”

Now they both give in, tossing their knives aside and putting their hands on their head. Joven is able to see what the men are wearing now. They’re covered head to toe in body armor, and their helmets have a thick mesh screen that covers their faces. Not an inch of skin is showing. That could only mean one thing: They know about the bugs, and are protecting themselves from getting stung. Perhaps more concerning is the fact that there is no patch or logo on their uniform showing that they are indeed with the US military.

“Who are you?” Joven asks. The one facing him lowers his weapon slightly and approaches him.

“We’re with the department of defense. We’re going to get you out of here,” He informs, stepping up closer to him. “Were you stung by any insects in the past twenty four hours?”

“No,” he replies. The two supposed soldiers inform Joven and Lasercorn that they needed to be searched, and pat them down.

“Are you two alone?” The man asks after he finds nothing on Joven.

“Yeah it’s just us.” Joven doesn’t flinch at the lie, and luckily Lasercorn follows along.

“We got two survivors in the cabin north of the airship, bring in reinforcements,” The soldier says into an unseen radio, and then turns to his partner.

“Rodgers, check the premise for lifeforms,” He instructs, and Joven’s heart drops. If they went upstairs, they would surely find Sohinki and Wes. Without proof that they were really there to help them, he couldn’t let that happen.

“This is our house. We can assure you there’s nothing else here,” Joven argues, trying to hide his fear. The soldiers don’t acknowledge him though, and the one identified as Rodgers marches up the steps.

“You two stand over here, backs to the wall,” The remaining man instructs, grabbing them both by the arm and forcing them against the bricks. Joven and Lasercorn are frozen, trying desperately to come up with a plan to protect their friends.

They don’t need to though. As Rodgers rounds the corner of the second story, a loud crack and a thud comes from above.

“Rodgers?” The man turns to the sudden sound, and the two spring into action. Lasercorn kicks the back of the man’s knee, and he crumples to the ground at the sudden attack. Joven runs up and wrestles the gun from the grip of the soldier, who was now sprawled on his stomach. With the butt of the gun, Joven hits the man in the head, and he slumps completely to the floor. They look up to see Sohinki standing at the top of the stairs clutching the crowbar, the body of the other soldier also lifeless next to him.

“Thank God,” Joven mumbles, and runs up to meet Sohinki.

“I heard you tell them we weren’t here, so I assumed we couldn’t trust them,” Sohinki explains.

“You assumed right. They said they’re with the military but nothing on their gear proves that. We gotta get out of here though, the guy radioed for reinforcements. Grab that guys’ gun.”

“I’ll go get Wes,” Lasercorn says, and Sohinki instructs him on where they were.

“What are the chances we get past these guys?” Sohinki asks, skepticism lacing his voice.

“I don’t know, but we’re better off trying to make a run for it than we are going with them.”

When the four regroup, accompanied by Farfel, they start to formulate a plan. There is a brief discussion on whether or not to bring the dog, but it’s quickly decided that Farfel would stay. The dog had only been with the group for half an hour, but he grew on them quickly and was officially the fifth member of their team.

They decide their best bet is to climb out the window they originally came through and make a break for the forest behind the cabin. The unknown soldiers were sure to be scattered all around the roads and structures, if they wanted to escape they’d have to lay low. Luckily zombies weren’t as much of a threat anymore. The people who had landed here seemed to take out most of them based off the amount of gunfire they heard. At least, they hoped the gunfire was directed towards zombies.

They quickly exit the window, pull out Farfel, and help Wes climb through as well. He makes a great deal of noise through his yells of pain, but there was plenty of other sounds to drown it out. They get situated in their respective roles, Sohinki and Joven with their stolen guns, and Lasercorn helping Wes.

“Give me the gun,” Wes says to Sohinki just as they start sneaking towards the tree line.

“You’ve got a busted arm and leg, do you really think –”

“I’ve been useless this entire time, but if there’s one thing I can do, it’s shoot a fucking gun.”

Sohinki nods reluctantly and hands over the fire arm. Wes instructs Lasercorn to support his left side, despite the bone fracture on his left arm. He grits through the pain though, and the four begin to sneak through the snow. They can hear the sound of more soldiers approaching the house, followed shortly by shouting. They must have found the bodies of their unconscious associates.

“We gotta go,” Sohinki says, and they move as fast as they can. Wes and Lasercorn take the lead, followed by Sohinki, Joven, and the dog.

“If it comes to it, are you shooting these people?” Lasercorn asks.

“If they fire at us, we fire back.” Joven’s words hit hard, and the reality of shooting another person sinks in. The things they’re fighting aren’t monsters anymore.

They are just about to make it past the fence of the cabin, when a soldier comes around the corner with a small gun pointed at them. Wes acts on pure adrenaline, and shoots the man in the leg. He yells and crumples to the ground, staining the white snow dark red.

“Keep moving!” He says, and they almost sprint to the forest. Bullets fly past Joven’s head, and he turns to blindly fire at the person who sent them. He sees someone go down, but doesn’t look long enough to see where the man was hit. More soldiers approach as the group makes it behind the cover of the trees. Sohinki grabs Farfel’s collar and keeps him from darting into the line of fire. Tree bark flies as bullets graze the edge of the trunks, and Wes and Joven try and return fire without making themselves vulnerable. Wes manages to hit two more soldiers, but more are coming fast. They’re out gunned, and their accuracy is hindered as they try to stay covered.

“What do we do?” Sohinki yells over the sound of shots ringing out.

“We need to retreat back, we can’t fight them all off,” Joven says, and the other three all nod. He’s the first to get up, running behind another tree further in. Sohinki lets go of the dog, who runs to stand at Joven’s feet. Getting up the courage, Sohinki follows, but doesn’t make it more than a few steps before stumbling to the ground.

“Matt!” Joven is washed over by a moment of pure anguish as his friend gets shot in the back. However, he quickly realizes something is off. As Sohinki falls, his body convulses. There is no blood, and no wound. Instead, as he lands on his side, Joven can see a metal piece sticking out of his back. Sohinki continues to slightly twitch, still breathing, but unable to move.

“They’ve got some kind of taser bullets!” Joven yells to Wes and Lasercorn, who have turned to see Sohinki lying prone in the snow. More men approach, but they appear to be holding out smaller guns as opposed to the larger assault rifles from the two men in the cabin.

“Lasercorn, grab Sohinki and run!” Wes commands. Lasercorn is able to reach him without getting hit, but underestimates the strength it takes to lift the full weight of an incapacitated adult. Wes and Joven are helpless to watch as Lasercorn gets a taser bullet to the leg, and also shudders to the ground.

“We’re not getting out of this, we’ve gotta surrender!” Joven cries out despondently, and Wes gives a pained nod in response.

They throw their guns to the side, slowly stepping out with arms raised. Joven keeps one hand on the dogs collar to hold him back. Soldiers are around them instantly, throwing them to the ground and cuffing their hands behind their backs. Wes screams in pain as they twist his bad arm, yelling about the fracture. Of course the soldiers ignore him, and the two un-tased men are pulled to their feet. Farfel runs out of reach of the soldiers, while several men grab Sohinki and Lasercorn. The detained group is now marched off towards the airship, being handled with little regard for their well-being. Wes is practically dragged, moaning in pain the entire time.

Joven wanted to ask where they were going and what was going to happen to them, but knew it would only make it worse to speak up. The adrenaline of the attempted escape had worn off and all that was left was fear. Joven was almost jealous of his unconscious friends; they didn’t have to contemplate what was coming next.

It became clear as they neared the airship that the men were in fact from the department of defense; a giant logo was plastered to the side of it that showed off the insignia. Wes and Joven now realized they were in even deeper than they’d thought. Had they known they were actually US soldiers, they never would have fought back. Maybe it was stupidity on their part, or maybe they inadvertently knew what was yet to come from the hands of the US government. Either way, the two knew the future would only hold more devastation as they marched onto the airship.

The four survivors sat in their cell, the effects of the tasers finally wearing off after an hour. Lasercorn and Sohinki’s bodies ached, and the places they had been shot were now forming huge bruises. Everyone was beat down, both mentally and physically. Their strength was gone, as was their fight. There was nothing more they could do but sit and wait.

None of them ever thought their carefree weekend of filming could turn into a world of zombies, infected bugs, and military shootouts. It didn’t seem real. They wished it wasn’t. And as exhaustion finally caught up with them, and they drifted off to sleep on the cold metal benches, they hoped they would wake up back to the life they once knew.

* * *

_On January 23 rd, 2016, the first sting occurred._

_That evening the outbreak began, and it began in the small town of Big Bear._

_Hidden in the mountains of California was a facility run by the United States Biological Defense Program, one that was a secret to almost everyone. There were few who really knew what was happening behind those walls. That is, until what was hidden away finally broke out._

_For years ago, a group of elite biochemical engineers worked on perfecting the ultimate weapon: a virus so destructive that the United States could control any country just by threatening to use it. These scientists were not only successful, but perhaps too successful. The weapon was so powerful that not even the creators could contain it._

_It all started with one synthetically created bug; it was a mix between natural beetle and AI, a combination that supposedly allowed the creature to act as a normal insect while also be controlled like a robot. The plan was simple, to create swarms of these bugs carrying a deadly disease, and unleash them on whoever the United States saw fit. It was terrorism, highly organized terrorism, but the morality of the US government was nonexistent at that point. They decided they would do whatever it took to keep control over the rest of the globe._

_On January 23 rd, 2016, one bug escaped the facility. At first the engineers didn’t panic. They had a fail-safe built into their bugs: once it stung someone, it died. Besides, the virus it carried was a degenerative one that caused the person’s organs to rapidly fail and shut down bodily functions. One unfortunate person would be killed, but that could be covered up. No harm, no foul. What they didn’t anticipate was that the bug would lay its eggs in the human first._

_The larva of the bugs were designed to hatch in just over an hour in an effort to produce as many of them as possible. So an hour after the first sting, ten more bugs hatched, flooded from the host, and repeated the same process. Soon the swarms were uncontrollable, and those responsible realized there would be no coming back._

_Military personnel were called in immediately, but they hadn’t realized the second hitch in their bugs until after the mass amount of calls to 911 dispatchers. The people being infected weren’t staying dead. Once the larva hatched the corpse became reanimated. The virus hadn’t been refined, and was still in the process of testing, so the infection only partially worked. It destroyed some of the internal workings of the body, but most of the major functions remained. It was the perfect storm for a full fledged zombie._

_It was all downhill from there. The bugs spread fast, moving through California and growing exponentially in numbers. It didn’t take long for them to spread across the surrounding states and borders, infecting the entirety of North America in 72 hours._

_On January 23 rd, 2016, the world changed forever. One bug was all it took, and the rest was history._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The formatting of the first two chapters is a bit odd, but there's a reason for that. Chapter one contains the transcribed events of the Smosh Games Outbreak Undead series, which is why it is so long, and chapter two begins my interpretation of what follows. The following chapters will be more normal, so stick with me!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There wasn’t truly any good left, only people trying to do what they thought was right. And doing right was what the four men dedicated their lives to.

_Five Years Later_

_In the run down city of Los Angeles, there was a group that offered a ray of hope from the darkness of the militaristic government overseeing the Western United States. The group didn’t have a name per se, more like a code; when people referred to them, they simply called them Help. If a faction was in need of food and water, they would call for Help. If a group couldn’t pay off a debt to someone threatening them, they would ask for Help. If another vigilante was caught and imprisoned, Help would be on the way to rescue them._

_Though the group was small, run by only four men, they had a network that worked under the radar of the military-controlled cities. Food, money, and protection would be given to people who were in need of it, all at the hands of their small but powerful operation. The four were most certainly the good guys, at least that was what they told themselves. There wasn’t truly any good left, only people trying to do what they thought was right. And doing right was just what the four men dedicated their lives to._

_There was a reason why Help was one of the only successful vigilante systems in California, and that was because the only known affiliates were Joshua “Joven” Ovenshire, Wes Johnson, David “Lasercorn” Moss, and Matt Sohinki. Nothing was known about their network except the fact that they were in charge, and that’s how it was meant to be. If all sights were aimed on them, they could keep everyone else associated with them as safe as possible, allies and recipients alike. They didn’t have many other people working alongside them, it was an operation mostly run by the four themselves. But as need for their assistance grew, they had to pull in more forces to keep up the demand for aid. They tried to choose only those who were the most trustworthy, those who they believed had the purest intentions. Obviously that didn’t always work out as they planned, and now they were in danger of losing help because of misplaced trust._

Wes slammed the trunk of the truck closed before hoping into the passenger side door with the rest of the group. The crates of vaccines looked as secure as they could get, and they only had another ten minutes before the military patrol group was scheduled to make its way around. It was time to get back to base before they ran into trouble.

“Got it all?” Joven asked from the driver’s seat.

“Yep. Can’t believe they just left a whole shipment of this stuff unguarded. Who did you say gave you the tip?” Wes asked as Joven began pulling out of the abandoned warehouse.

“The new guy we got connected with last week, Anderson. He said he intercepted a military transmission about the drop off, and thought we might want to get it.” Joven replied. Wes sighed, not liking the idea of being sent off on a fetch errand from Anderson. Ever since they’d met with him, Wes had a bad feeling about the guy. He was very vocal about not wanting to ally with him, but Joven wouldn’t listen. Ultimately Joven was the one to call the shots, and Sohinki and Lasercorn agreed, so he was out numbered.

“It’s a good thing they did, we just got another request for more of the stuff. Apparently Faction 16 took in another group of survivors who haven’t been treated with it,” Lasercorn commented. He was right, as more and more people started coming to them with requests, they found their supply of vaccines to be dwindling. Even though it had been produced and distributed four months after the first sting, there was still plenty of people who had yet to receive it. That was a luxury people were only given if they lived within the military run cities. The majority of the population were drifters or part of factions, meaning a majority of the survivors were at risk of turning from the stings of the bugs.

“Let’s just get this truck back to home base before we run into a patrol,” Sohinki said, shifting in his seat as Joven sped off down the rarely used roads. They had mapped out the best ways to travel, ones that were free of any kind of possible run-ins with government vehicles.

The remainder of the drive was relatively uneventful. They didn’t see any other humans or vehicles, and they easily passed by any zombies roaming about. It wasn’t until they were twenty minutes out from base that things took a turn.

From within Joven’s pack, the group could hear the high pitched beeping of their pager. They used the outdated technology as a way to safely communicate with allies and those they aided, sending number codes to keep messages secret.

Lasercorn, who was sitting next to the backpack, quickly pulled it out and read over the message. His eyebrows furrowed and panic arose in his voice.

“Joven pull over, get us somewhere hidden,” He commanded, and Joven didn’t even question him as he rolled the car into an alley way and shut off the engine.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, and Lasercorn held up the device to show him the message.

“It’s from Faction 34. Code 199.”

“Location compromised, don’t return to base..” Joven breathed out, reciting the memorized cipher.

“Do you think they mean them? Or do they mean us?” Sohinki asked.

“They mean us. If they were in trouble they would have sent 45. Shit..” Joven ran his hand through his hair, trying to think. Just as he was about to speak, he saw a military truck drive past them in the rear view mirror. He motioned for the rest to duck down, and luckily the vehicle went past them without stopping.

“How did they find us? No one knows about our location except–” Lasercorn started, but was cut off by Wes.

“Anderson,” He shot a glare at Joven. “This has got to be his fault, we met him at base a few days ago. He must have been working with the military, now he knows where to find us.”

“We don’t know that for sure. Pull out the radio, see if we can pick up anything,” Joven instructed. Wes grabbed the radio and began messing with the frequencies, eventually finding one that had audible voices coming across it. The four listened intently, and could hear the faint messages being relayed. Orders were being given to hide in position, wait for the targets to return, and attack on command. Joven sucked in a deep breath, realizing Wes had been right all along. There was no doubting it, the voice coming over the radio belonged to Anderson. Joven had been wrong to trust him, and now everything was at risk of falling apart.

“Grab everything you can and follow me.”

 

The four sprinted through the cold, abandoned LA tunnels, guns raised to fire at any sudden movement. Their breaths were heavy but quiet as they made their way towards their destination. They were exhausted, but they were so close to safety.

The pounding of his heart made Joven think about the first time they’d been on the run. When they’d escaped prison all those years ago, when they had practically nothing. Now was just like then. Everything they’d built up after all those years was suddenly gone, and none of them knew if they would ever get it back. Supplies, weapons, safety, they were all things the group had taken for granted. Now that it was gone, the fear and desperation was building in them again.

As the group rounded the corner of the forgotten tunnels, it finally came into view: their hidden safe house. They filed in slowly, closing the heavy metal door behind them and securing it shut. Joven walked over to the old gas powered generator, turned it on, and pulled the recoil chord. Soon enough it sputtered to life and the sparse overhead lamps flickered on to reveal the small emergency bunker. Joven knew it was a good idea to have a backup safe house, despite his friends accusations of paranoia. Everyone visibly relaxed as they started unloading packs and weapons. The old subway and service tunnels had been long forgotten about since the first sting, and now the group used them as an escape from the world above.

“I told you it was stupid to trust Anderson. Every bone in my body was telling me he was a double agent,” Wes growled to Joven, throwing his assault rifle onto the nearest cot, “If you would have listened to me we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“Mendoza trusted him, and I trusted Mendoza, so I took his word when he said Anderson would help us,” Joven bit back.

“So was Mendoza in on it too? Can we not trust him or his faction anymore?” Wes questioned.

“I don’t know! Can we just slow down and focus on the problem at hand.”

“We’re all alive aren’t we?” Lasercorn chirped up half-heartedly, breaking the tension building between Joven and Wes. “At least we’re not dead.”

“We might as well be,” Wes mumbled as he lowered himself against the concrete wall, “They’ve got home base surrounded, they probably found the plans and trade routes and all the other shit we have there. We’re fucked.”

“They’d have to literally tear the place apart to find those flash drives,” Joven retorted.

“You think they won’t? The military’s been trying to catch us for years, now that they’ve got us they aren’t going to hold back.” Joven rubbed his face as Wes spoke, trying to think.

“Even if they do find everything, it’ll take them awhile to decode it. We have time. And they haven’t cornered us yet, they don’t know where we are.”

The four sat in pained silence, recounting the past few hours. Joven couldn’t help but take responsibility for it, he was their appointed leader. They had put their trust in him to make the big decisions, and this time he had really messed up. All Joven wanted – all the whole group wanted – was to do good in the ruins of their old society. But now they were in danger of losing Help because of misplaced trust.

“We need a distraction, a way to get them away from base so we can sneak in and get back everything hidden there,” Wes stated. Lasercorn shook his head.

“You said it yourself, they probably found everything already and have it entered into their computer systems. Trying to go in guns blazing would be a suicide mission,” He countered.

“So what? We just give up?” Wes threw back in a harsh tone.

“Lasercorn’s right Wes,” Joven said, placing a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. “It’s no use trying to go back to base now, It’s as good as gone. I know the situation looks bad, but we can get out of this. We’ve been in bad circumstances before, and we’ve always come out on top. We just need to think rationally, and come up with a plan.”

“I think the only way to prevent any further damage is to wipe the data completely. Go into their computer systems and destroy it. It would mean we would have to start from square one too, but it’s better than them having the upper hand,” Lasercorn said.

Sohinki, who had been totally silent since they’d entered the breaker room, sat up from where he had been laying on his cot. He quietly cleared his throat and began rummaging in his back pants pocket.

“I think now’s a good a time as any to admit this..” He states, the sound of Velcro being unattached echoing throughout the space. He pulled out a small object, holding it up in the dim lighting. “I know Joven said not to, but I always have a backup hard drive of the plans on me. I made a secure pocket to hold it in so I wouldn’t lose it. I figured it would be good to have a second copy just in case, and turn’s out I was right.”

Joven shook his head, scoffing a bit before a small smile formed on his face.

“Sohinki you son of a bitch,” He laughed, reaching forward to examine the drive.

“It’s password protected and everything. I just figured it would be stupid to only have one copy of every important document we have,” Sohinki explained.

“Well, I hate being wrong, but I’m glad you decided not to listen to me,” Joven said, “But only this once.”

“So we have our own copy. That means we can go in and wipe what they have, no damage done on our end,” Wes stated.

“Yeah, theoretically,” Sohinki said, “But that’s easier said than done. We would need to get into their headquarters, hack into their main computer system, and forcibly delete everything. I don’t think anyone here has that kind of technological expertise.”

“So we find someone who does,” Wes suggests.

“Who? Where would we just find someone like that? In case you haven’t noticed, were hiding in the underground of LA, from the US government. We don’t exactly have the upper hand.” Sohinki was right, their situation wasn’t great. But they had to count their blessings; at least they hadn’t been caught, at least they had been warned.

That was when it hit Joven.

“You guys, we may have lost pretty much everything, but there is still one thing we have for certain,” Joven interrupted.

“Thanks for the uplifting speech Joven,” Lasercorn muttered sarcastically.

“What do we have for certain?” Sohinki humored, ignoring his orange haired friend. Joven held up the pager, which still displayed the last transmission they’d received

“Faction 34.”

* * *

“Do you really think they’ll take us in? We’d be putting them in so much danger,” Wes asked as he climbed into bed.

“What other option do we have? We can’t stay here forever, and we need help,” Sohinki replied, already half asleep.

“If I were to put my trust in anyone, it would be Faction 34. They’re obviously not going to turn on us, they were the ones to warn us about the raid,” Joven pointed out. He looked over to see Lasercorn still standing by the door, fiddling with the knife from his belt. The other two were already on their way to falling asleep, contempt with the plan to find refuge with Faction 34 until they could get on their feet again. Lasercorn was quiet the entire time they had been discussing the plan, and Joven knew why. He quietly got to his feet and walked over to his brooding friend.

“You wanna talk? We can step outside for a bit, I doubt anything is down here that we need to be worried about,” Joven asked in a hushed tone. Lasercorn didn’t look at him, and didn’t give more than a shrug. Joven gently grabbed the knife from his hand and set it on the table besides them.

“Come on, let’s talk.” The two stepped outside the hidden room into the dark tunnels outside. Joven grabbed a flashlight and turned it on, the white light casting shadows through the eerie halls. He was silent for a moment, not sure what to say.

Faction 34 was set up as a refuge for single mothers and children. Of course there were other men and women there as well, but the primary focus was creating a safe environment for those who wouldn’t survive as drifters, and who had escaped from life in the cities. Most people living in the apocalypse didn’t think it was worth the resources to keep what they thought of as “the weak” safe, and mothers and children fell into that category. Faction 34 was one of the few that was kind enough to give them sanctuary.

“I know you’re not excited about the plan, and I get it. They’ll be a lot of kids there and –”

“We don’t need to have this conversation,” Lasercorn interjected, “I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”

“Last time we were there it hit you hard. No one blames you, we can’t imagine how hard it is for you to lose –”

“Stop!” Lasercorn’s voice echoed through the tunnels. His eyes brimmed with tears, but he looked away in an attempt to hide them. “It’s been five years. I’ve come to terms with it. I don’t need you to treat me like I’m made of glass.”

A silence falls between them, giving Lasercorn time to compose himself after his small outburst.

“I just don’t think we should be putting them at risk like this. They’re already so vulnerable.. and I don’t want anyone else to go through the same thing I did,” Lasercorn says in a quieter tone. Joven nods solemnly.

“I know, and I wish it didn’t have to be this way. But at this point we don’t know who we can trust anymore. The only people we know for sure are on our side is Faction 34, we can’t afford to take a risk and put our faith in anyone else. We’ll do everything we can to keep our whereabouts secret.”

Lasercorn nodded, though he still didn’t want to go through with the plan. He wanted to say it was only because of the risk they posed staying with them, but he knew it was really that he didn’t think he could handle being around children again. The last time the group went to Faction 34 he could have sworn one of them looked exactly like Tyler. He cried himself to sleep for months after that.

“I’ll leave you alone. Just don’t stay up too late tonight.” Joven patted his friend on the back before retreating back into the bunker. Lasercorn watched him go, making sure he was alone before reaching into the inside of his jacket. From within the secret pocket he pulled out a small, faded picture. He couldn’t help but smile at the curly-haired one year old that stared back at him.

It was eight days until his birthday, he would be turning six. Lasercorn’s heart broke thinking of all the milestones he’d missed, all the time he would never get to spend with his son.

It had never been confirmed or denied whether or not Tyler survived. Lasercorn wanted so desperately to cling onto hope that his son was still out there, but the likelihood of that being true was almost nothing. At least seventy percent of the population in California died within the first week. Lasercorn tried to tell himself to move on and grieve the loss of his son, but he couldn’t get himself to do it. There was still a chance, and that was enough to keep him hoping.

Lasercorn folded the picture and gently put it back in his pocket. A single tear rolled down his cheek, and he wiped it away quickly. He had to hold it together, both for himself and his friends. With a deep breath he got up from his spot on the cold concrete, and joined his friends in their attempt to get some sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updates are slow, but they're coming! The first few chapter will be a lot of world building, I don't want to have a huge information dump so I'm trying to spread it out while still starting up the plot line.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So what ever way we go, it’s going to end in a gun fight?”
> 
> “Yes, but hopefully this way will only end in a small gun fight.”
> 
> A moment of silence followed. Wes nodded his head, loading a clip into his gun. “Then let’s fucking do this thing."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who have already read up to this point, I reorganized the previous chapter to make more sense. Nothing really changed, but if you want to go back and reread it I cleaned it up a bit. I realized coming back to this story that I wasn't very happy with the way chapter three was structured, so I reworked it a bit.

The plan was simple enough: get to Faction 34 and find a place to lay low until they were ready to regain control of Help. The simplicity of the plan in no way reflected the chaos that surrounded them though. They had very little on their side, and a lot going against them. They were outnumbered, out equipped, and they had to act fast before the government decrypted the stolen files. The stake were high, if they didn’t get that information wiped out then everyone who was connected to Help was sure to feel the wrath of the military at their doorsteps.

The morning after the group had made it to their safehouse, Joven sent out the signals warning everyone that they’d been compromised. He shut down all trades, shipments, and raids to avoid any further damage. He knew it meant that there would be factions that wouldn’t be getting the materials they had been promised, but at that point there was nothing he could do. Continuing operations would only put everyone in jeopardy. Joven felt the pressure, and in his mind the success or failure of their mission rested completely on his shoulders.

“As of now, all operations are down,” Joven told the group with a heavy sigh. “Until we know that our information is safe, we have to keep everything offline.”

The others nodded solemnly, knowing it was the right call. Each member felt like they’d let down the communities around them. For years they had been spearheading the operation, and not once had they needed to shut it all down. It was like they were back to square one again. No one knew how long it would be until they could get back on track, and that was something that hurt the most.

As the others were gathering what they needed, Joven could hear the faint beeping of his pager. No one else had, so he pulled it out to check the message. It was from Faction 34. He’d been in communication with them, and everything was going as planned up until then. The group was going to meet up with an extraction team outside of LA, where they’d sneak off together. But, as per the message, plans had changed. He cursed to himself, trying to think of another option with the sudden change of plans. Wes looked over at Joven, noticing how he was nervously rubbing his beard. He was about to ask what was wrong, but didn’t have the chance.

“We gotta move fast. The longer we take the longer they have to break the encrypted files,” Sohinki stated. Joven’s mind raced as he slowly realized there was really only one option, and the others weren’t going to like it. Uncharacteristically, he didn’t tell the team about the new plan, deciding to wait until the last minute. Wes watched with concern as Joven put up a normal façade, but joined the others and grabbed his pack and weapon. He followed the groups out, preparing to face the world above.

Even though they were all immune to the affects of the stings of the metallic bugs, it didn’t mean it felt nice getting stung. The insects were as common as flies by this point, so as long as you were on the surface, you were at risk. Luckily the bugs behavior was fairly predictable, and they’d become less aggressive over the years. As long as you didn’t bother them, they were likely to leave you alone. They also only aimed for the skin – something in their programming to inflict maximum damage – so as long as you were covered, you were safe.

The hot California sun was not accommodating of the necessary attire though, and being out in the heat, completely covered, meant you were a lot more likely to get dehydrated. So, as the men filed into the open air they stuck to the shade of buildings, deciding they’d take the chances of zombies popping out at them from within the walls of the desolate structure.

Moving through dangerous terrain had become second nature to the four. They’d done it for so long now that they immediately fell into place whenever they had to move around undetected. Wes took the lead, followed by Lasercorn and Sohinki, with Joven covering the rear. It was effortless; zombies were taken down with clean shots, they hardly made a noise above the sounds of the silencers on their guns. If you hadn’t known they were there, you never would.

“Three blocks east, two north, there’s a truck parked behind the burger king.” The group had stopped in the shade to rehydrate, and Joven took the chance to blurt out the plan without any explanation. The three gave him a puzzled look, as expected.

“Wait, what? I thought you said we were going to leave the city on foot,” Wes questioned.

“How would we bypass Anderson’s trucks? They’ve gotta be stationed at every point out of the city,” Lasercorn added, and Joven gave a brief nod.

“Right, so this is the part of the plan that I just need you guys to trust me on..” Joven waited hesitantly for the group to retaliate, but they just gave him hardened stares. If we try and get to Faction 34 on foot it’s going to take way too long, and we don’t have time for that.”

“But you said they’d send someone to pick us up on route there,” Sohinki recalled.

“And they were, but the group that was coming to get us was ambushed on their way here. I got the message just as we were leaving.” A silence fell over them. Suddenly, Wes understood what had fallen over Joven that morning. “They knew the risk, they sent the rescue team to us, but things went south. But I’m not willing to put any more of their people in harm’s way for us, so we’re going to have to make it out of here on our own.”

“Shit,” Wes mumbled, rubbing his face with his hands.

“At this point, all we can do is get to them in one piece. We can help them get their men back, but we can’t do that while we’re stuck in LA. So, I have an idea that may just be stupid enough to work,” Joven continued, and Lasercorn gave a skeptical look.

“And that is?”

“We’re going to take the main freeway exit out of here.” Everyone started to object, but Joven raised his hands to silence them, “Hear me out, okay? Anderson knows we’ve been operating on the down low, he’s expecting us to take some lesser known way out of the city. He’s going to have more people stationed in the remote exits.”

“So what ever way we go, it’s going to end in a gun fight?” Wes questioned.

“Yes, but hopefully this way will only end in a small gun fight.”

A moment of silence followed. Wes nodded his head, loading a clip into his gun. “Then let’s fucking do this thing."

Getting to the car was easy. Getting the car through the city was easy too. The trouble came when the approached the Interstate 10 exit that things started to go downhill. As they neared the turn onto the major roadway, Joven pulled the car over. The four exited quietly, hearing the low hum of engines above them on the overpass. They could see two trucks parked in the middle of the road, as well as at least 10 soldiers spread across the area.

“Told you they’d go easy on the reinforcements,” Joven gloated. Sohinki gave a doubtful look.

“ _This_ is going easy?”

“After all these years of us screwing them over and helping people outside the cities, I’d say so.”

As he finished speaking, another truck came rumbling down the road, and the four dove down to avoid being seen. They watched as the vehicle slowed at the top of the freeway exit, and a man leaned out of the window to talk to one of the soldiers. They waited patiently until the conversation ended, and the vehicle left the same way it came.

“Look at their posture,” Wes noted, “They’re relaxed.”

“Guess they aren’t expecting us to come this way,” Lasercorn agreed.

“Alright, if we’re going to go, it’s gotta be now. Laser, you got those smoke bombs?” Lasercorn unhooked the explosives from his belt, holding them up in affirmation to Joven. “Perfect. Sohin, you’re on tires. Wes, you aim for their legs. Remember to hold on, I’m going straight through the vehicles. Send out a prayer that our truck can handle it.”

With a final tap of the hood, the four assumed their positions. All but Lasercorn piled into the truck; he got as close as he could to the men without being seen, bombs at the ready.

“On my count, you throw the smokers, get in, and we go.” Lasercorn nodded. “Three, two, one.”

The clattering of metal was heard as Lasercorn hurled the bombs as far as he could. Sounds of guns cocking rang out seconds before the detonation sent up a cloud of grey powder. Lasercorn dove back into the car as Joven sped around the corner. Gun shots sounded from both sides. Joven swerved the car left and right, throwing off the men just enough to avoid a bullet from flying through the window. As they got closer the people and cars came nearer into view, and Sohinki aimed at the tires of their vehicles. With a few shots he managed to hit both tires on the exposed sides of the cars, and they sunk lower as the air deflated. Wes never let his hand leave the trigger, sending a constant stream towards the enemies. The further up they got the more they could feel the car taking shots, one flying through the window and narrowly missing Lasercorn’s head.

“Brace yourselves!” Joven shouted, speeding up the vehicle as he neared the narrow gap they’d have to get through. The others tucked their heads down as their truck made contact with the other vehicles. Everyone could feel the air leave their lungs as the car took the force, but somehow it was able to push past and continue sputtering down the freeway. Joven let out an astonished cry at the success, which was quickly shattered by the sound of continued firing from behind.

“Returning fire!” Wes yelled, leaning out the window again. Joven sped up, looking in his rearview mirror to see that a third truck had appeared from the shoulder behind them.

“Shit. Get them off our tail!”

It would be impossible to outrun them, their car had taken too much damage. Both Sohinki and Wes were trying to shoot their tires out, but the vehicle behind them was shooting back at twice the speed. The two couldn’t get a steady shot without risking being hit.

“It’s impossible, we need a plan b,” Sohinki stated, and Lasercorn bent down to rummage in his bag for a brief moment.

“I was hoping to save this,” he started, pulling out a homemade looking explosive, “but I guess now’s as good a time as any.”

“What the hell is that?” Wes shouted, Joven swerving as another barrage of bullets hit the back of their car.

“We’re kicking it GTA style,” He laughed, “Sticky bomb!”

Lasercorn rolled down his window, preparing the detonation device in his hand, “Wes, cover me.”

Wes did, opening fire as Lasercorn leaned out the window with the self-made magnet bomb in hand. With just enough time to steady his aim, he threw it at the hood of the car, cheering as it stuck. Joven watched in the rear view mirror as the vehicle slowed down just a bit, and he took the chance to push their truck to go as fast as it could. When they had gained enough distance between them, Lasercorn hit the detonator, sending up a massive cloud of orange and black from behind them. The force shook their car, but they managed to regain control and speed off from the city of LA.

“When were you planning on telling us about you’re little experiment?” Wes asked, panting as he dropped his gun to the side.

“What? A guy can’t indulge himself every once in a while?”

* * *

Timing was on their side that day, because as soon as they were off the government’s trail their car sputtered to a halt. They’d been driving along Interstate 210, a secure enough road that they knew they weren’t going to run into too much traffic from either friends or enemies. No one was surprised when the engine started smoking, if anything they were surprised that it had lasted as long as it had.

“Alright, spread out and try and find a vehicle. There are plenty along the shoulder, we should be able to find one that has the keys in it. Sohin, you get the hose and gas can from the back and start siphoning the gas from our truck. I’d be surprised if any cars along here haven’t been looted yet.”

The team broke into their respective roles, splitting up to look for a viable option. They still had at least a twenty minute drive, which would take much longer on foot. It was their last resort. As Joven started opening and closing car doors he noticed Wes walking in his direction. They were far enough from the others that no one seemed to notice.

“Hey,” Wes started, catching up with Joven.

“Is everything okay?” He asked, checking over his friend. He’d been known to hide wounds in the past, and he wouldn’t have put it past him to wait until they’d stopped to admit it.

“Yeah.. I just wanted to apologize. Today and yesterday I’ve kind of been a dick.”

“We all are, don’t worry about it.” Joven patted Wes on the back, figuring that would be the end of it. He hadn’t really thought much of it, the group had had quarrels before and they’d always moved past it quickly.

“But.. I’ve just been a bigger one than normal recently. I know it’s not your fault that Anderson caught us. We all trusted him to some degree, no one saw it coming. I realized I was probably making you feel worse than I know you already do.” Joven nodded. He had been feeling the guilt, but it hadn’t been because of Wes. For as long as they’d been operating Help, Joven had been the teams appointed leader. He appreciated the role, and was glad to take it, but sometimes it came down on him a bit too heavy.  

Wes placed a hand on Joven’s shoulder, the touch was reassuring for him. “I know you’re blaming yourself for everything that’s happened in the past two days, but don’t. We’re a team, we’re in this together.”

Joven smiled, giving his friend a grateful glance. “Thank you. I think I needed to hear that.”

“Hey! Got one!” Lasercorn’s exclamation cut their conversation short. Wes gave Joven’s shoulder a gentle squeeze before jogging off to help Sohinki fill the gas tank. Joven sighed, trying to tell himself things would work out. He wasn’t one for optimism, but maybe this once it wouldn’t be such a bad thing.


End file.
